Ma femme... s’appelle Maurice (2002)

Ma femme... s’appelle Maurice is a French film comedy first released in 2002, directed by Jean-Marie Poiré.  The film stars Alice Evans, Régis Laspalès, Philippe Chevallier, Götz Otto and Anémone.  It has also been released under the title: My Wife Maurice.  Our overall rating for this film is: very poor.


When Emmanuelle discovers that her boyfriend Georges is married, she is determined to have her revenge.  Armed with a hungry hedge cutter, she heads for Georges’ Parisian apartment to tell his wife about his extra-marital affair.  Forewarned of this impending disaster, Georges recruits a charity worker Maurice Lappin to dress up as his wife and scare Emmanuelle away.  Unfortunately, what Georges does not know is that he is about to be visited by Emmanuelle’s jealous and slightly psychopathic boyfriend Johnny and a respectable couple who are thinking of buying his apartment...

After such hits as Le Père Noël est une ordure (1982), Papy fait de la résistance (1983) and Les Visiteurs (1993), Jean-Marie Poiré’s latest madcap comedy comes as something of a major disappointment.  Despite some ebullient performances from the supporting cast (notably Götz Otto, Martin Lamotte and Anémone), most of the film’s comic set pieces just fail to ignite and the whole thing is embarrassingly silly from start to finish.  The main reason for the film’s failure is its script – possibly the worst that Poiré has had a hand in – but chronically lacklustre performances from Régis Laspalès and Philippe Chevallier, the film’s two male leads, don’t exactly help matters.  The zany sense of fun that just about keeps this cheap bedroom farce moving may however appeal to some spectators, and there are one or two good visual jokes along the way.


© James Travers 2005

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